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Leylah Fernandez, Kaja Juvan, Barbora Krejcikova and Tamara Zidansek nominated for Billie Jean King Cup Heart Award

Fans can vote for the player who stepped up for their country in April's Qualifiers.

ByBaseline Staff

Published May 18, 2023

FLASHBACK: The Qualifiers took place at nine locations last month, putting nine teams including the U.S. into November's Finals.

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Four players who helped three nations book a place in the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup Finals have been nominated for the Heart Award for the 2023 qualifying round. Fans can vote for the player who they feel stepped up the most for their country in April's Qualifiers until Friday at the Billie Jean King Cup website.

Leylah Fernandez, Barbora Krejcikova, Kaja Juvan and Tamara Zidansek helped Canada, the Czech Republic and Slovenia advance to this year's Finals in Seville, Spain in November, and the quartet lead the 10 players up for receiving the fan-voted award. Six players from the Group I regional ties in the Americas, Europe/Africa, and Asia/Oceania were also selected.

Fernandez led Canada in a 3-2 thriller over Belgium by going 3-0. She won both her singles matches, and teamed with Gabriela Dabrowski, to put Canada back in the Finals; twelve months ago in Glasgow, Canada finished second to eventual winners Switzerland in Group A.

Meanwhile, Krejcikova led a powerhouse Czech team to another Finals berth with a 1-1 performance against Ukraine. However, Krejcikova's effort was most notable for what she did off the court. As Ukraine was the host for the tie, but cannot play in Ukraine as a consequence of the Russian invasion, the tie was staged in Turkey, and Krejcikova announced that she would donate the money she was due to earn from the ITF for her appearance to earthquake relief.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck parts of Turkey and Syria in February, killing more than 50,000 and leaving millions homeless.

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Finally, Juvan and Zidansek led Slovenia to a historic first-ever Finals berth in a dramatic 3-2 win over Romania, which was pushed to three days as a result of rain. Slovenia trailed 2-0 in Koper before Juvan and Zidansek authored the comeback.

Zidansek kept Slovenia in the tie with a 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-5 win over Ana Bogdan, where Bogdan served for the win three times, and she and Juvan teamed up to come from a set behind in beating Irina Bara and Monica Niculescu, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

The triumph was doubly emotional for former world No. 58 Juvan, who had posted days prior that she was going to 'slow down' from tour life to mourn her father, who passed away last December.